In recent years, an electrophoretic display device which effects display by moving electrophoretic particles under voltage application, has received attention as a non-light emission type display device.
This type of the electrophoretic display device, according to U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,361, includes a pair of substrates disposed with a predetermined spacing, an insulating liquid filled in the spacing, a large number of electrophoretic particles (charged migration particles) dispersed in the insulating liquid, and a pair of electrodes disposed so as to be close to the insulating liquid.
The electrophoretic display device effects various displays, e.g., by utilizing a difference in color between the case of disposing (dispersing) electrophoretic particles 3 in a wide area (the left-hand pixel shown in FIG. 12) and the case of disposing (correcting) the electrophoretic particles in a narrow area (the right-hand pixel shown in FIG. 12). In FIG. 12, two pixel portions of the electrophoretic display device are shown, and each pixel includes the electrophoretic particles 3, an insulating liquid 2, one electrode 44a, and the other electrode 44b disposed so as to partition the two pixels.
When the electrophoretic display device is subjected to display of an identical image for a long time (e.g., when only one of the display states shown at the right-hand and left-hand pixels in FIG. 12 is kept for a long time), the associated pixel is continuously supplied with the same electric field for a long time, so that a spade charge distribution is created due to, e.g., presence of ions in a dispersion liquid, thus resulting in a residual DC (voltage) component. As a result, when another display is effected, an electric field is modulated by the residual DC component, so that deviation form a desired writing level (i.e., display burning) is caused to occur. This problem arises not only in the case of continuously effecting the same display for a long time but also in the case of effecting display intermittently for a long time.